A Thousand Moments We've Shared
by Phoenix To Flame
Summary: A drabble collection of ascending length over the various moments in space and time that Seth and Eirika have shared, from canon to alternate universes.
1. Reluctance

This will be my only author's note till the end of the collection, since I could very easily write much longer notes than my drabbles. I'll be posting them in sets as I complete the sets, and the list is one I wrote on my own while thinking of the pairing.

Without further adieu, enjoy.

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><p>He refuses to be alone with her now. She thinks that she might understand why, but that doesn't stop the pain from building up inside. Maybe she moved too fast, but reluctance had stopped her long enough from speaking.<p>

Now the only time that he meets her eyes is during battle, and she can see that it hurts him almost as much as it hurts her to stay away. But he is too noble to allow himself to feel the way she does when so much rides on them just surviving another day. His reluctance is all that stops them.


	2. Fever

He fights through every battle that she leads him into with every fiber of his body. Maybe it makes him no better than Selena or anyone else who follows the Emperor into this senseless war, but he cannot deny that he will do anything she asks.

The fever of battle ignites his veins and he pulls on the reins one handed to charge back into battle. No matter what he says, he understands perfectly why men speak of women as the reasons all wars begin.

All he needs is her voice and he would summon his battle fever for her.


	3. Savior

He is always there to save her when Valter appears, though he's always outmatched. Eirika hates that she's always weak enough that she needs him to protect her, but there's a part of her that knows that no matter where he is on the battlefield, he will fly to her side to keep her soul safe from the monster seeking to crush it.

Still, she wants to be strong enough that one day, the day when Valter falls and can no longer haunt her day and night, he does not have to save her.

She can be the savior then.


	4. Monster

She is one of them, he knows that. A daughter of the night, locked into an unnatural youth that she keeps through the blood of others.

She's one of the ones he's sworn to fight, to end the terror that keeps everyone but the bravest and most foolhardy in their homes once the sun goes down. Her crimson eyes and icy skin are all that he needs to be reminded of that.

And yet Seth looks at her gentle smile and long hair like the sky just after sunset and fails yet again. He cannot see her as a monster.


	5. Caretaker

The wound on his shoulder is infected, she can smell it from across the small camp they've made. Not that he would admit it, he would never admit weakness where anyone might hear and think them vulnerable.

But the sickly sweet smell of flesh and the way a fever rises in his cheeks as he struggles to stay awake through the night watch makes her feel worried, and like she should do more. Father never let her study healing, but she watched the healers at the castle and knows how dangerous an infection is.

She would take care of him.


	6. Dance

Why she comes to him for help with things unrelated to sword fighting, he cannot say, but perhaps it is because she expects honesty from him above all else. So he's not really surprised when she comes up to him and asks him for help with learning a particular dance.

It isn't till they're positioned to start that he realizes which one it is. He's never been this close to her, not even when adjusting her grip on her sword, or showing her a particular stance. His hands on her waist, hers on his shoulder.

He shouldn't be doing this.


	7. Music

It is at their wedding that they finally have music to put the love that has grown beyond social rank or anything else that could stop them from being together. It is not the usual song played at weddings- Ephraim saw to that, but it suits them more. A piece with a strong undertone that grinds in her bones and makes her want to dance with her husband.

So she does. She stands up from the table where they're sequestered, taking his hand and leading him to the empty floor. No one dares stops them. This is her place now.


	8. Lifetime

There was a vampire hiding in the only room in his apartment without a window from the sunlight, and yet somehow he didn't mind so much. She had proven that she wasn't going to harm him yet, and she had saved him from the scourge of the night.

Seth polished the silver lance that gave him his title as a vampire hunter and looked towards the bathroom door. Though he couldn't see her, he knew that she was on the other side, waiting for nightfall to come.

Somehow, she reminded him of someone he'd known a long, long time ago.


	9. Solace

Nightmares of the war still plague her sleep even years afterwards, waking her stifling sobs in the middle of the night. Now that there are no more battles to fight, she can't erase the blood on her hands, least of all Lyon's.

Many nights, she wanders the castle like a ghost during the latest hours when no one else walks till exhaustion claims her and she sinks to the floor in uneasy repose. Till Seth stirs and comes and finds her and carries her back to her bed.

The guilty pleasure of his arms around her is her only solace.


	10. Dream

He sees her in his dreams, though every day her face fades a little from his memory. Though the war was won, the cost was far too high. He was the one to carry her body home from the fields to her brother.

He should have been there, he thinks when he wakes up from dreaming of her, he should have been there to stop the blow before it killed her, before it stole her from the world. Though Ephraim absolved him of guilt in her death, he still blames himself.

The only place he is forgiven is in dreams.


End file.
